The Rapidly Increasing Influence Of B2B MarketersFORBES , OCTOBER 2016.

By Kimberly Whitler

I’ve recently interviewed several CMOs (see list below). One thing I’ve noticed is that the role of the B2B CMO has changed drastically over the past decade. In many firms, sales historically ruled the roost as they owned customer understanding, relationship development, and

the process to drive superior outcomes.However, technology-enabled consumer insight has become the great equalizer, enabling CMOs and marketers to play a more important role in generating sales. To better understand the increasing influence of marketers in B2B firms, I turned to Margaret Molloy, Global CMO and Head of Business Development at global brand strategy, design and experience firm Siegel+Gale. In addition to having 20+ years of experience in marketing B2B firms, Molloy (@MargaretMolloy) has also become a leading influencer of CMOs on twitter (see here for the full list of influencers). What follows are her insights regarding the changing landscape for B2B marketers.

Kimberly Whitler: How would you describe the current situation for B2B CMOs?Margaret Molloy: It’s a wonderful time to be a CMO in the B2B world. There is an awakening as B2B firms have heightened awareness regarding the importance of marketing, branding, and the more expansive role that marketers can play.Whitler: What is the biggest challenge that B2B CMOs tend to face?Molloy: Despite the enhanced influence and impact of CMOs, there still are challenges that B2B CMOs face that their B2C counterparts may not experience to the same degree. For

example, in many B2B organizations, marketing is not the center of gravity. It still tends to be either the product or sales groups that dictate strategies. The implication is that marketers need to adopt a different posture to be effective in those organizations. They need to educate on the power of marketing. Specifically, complexity is a challenge for B2B CMOs today. There is a lot of noise out there for marketing teams and their clients. As CMO, I also see my role as the Chief Simplicity Officer. Employing a simplifier mindset means focusing on the right initiatives and presenting them (internally and externally) in ways that are both remarkably clear, and unexpectedly fresh. CMOs must resolve to distill business goals to be clear and focus on executing the programs that drive business performance.Whitler: Are there any unique opportunities that B2B CMOs have to create value?Molloy: Increasingly there is awareness in B2B companies about the value of a key constituent who has been neglected—the employee. Marketers need to consider their colleagues as the conduit through which the brand is activated. That means that CMOs are becoming more mindful of helping colleagues understand the firm’s purpose, point of view, and source of differentiation. It is essential that every representative in the company can communicate and live the brand in a compelling

way to drive differentiation. Said differently, if you think of your colleagues as a key differentiator, then marketing becomes the “culture carrier”—helping to evangelize, arm, and convert employees into effective brand representatives. CMOs need to help employees coalesce on the company’s purpose and propagate that throughout the organization.

Whitler: What makes the “culture carrying” CMO different from other CMOs?Molloy: Culture carrying CMOs needs to have a blend of talent that cuts across strategic thinking, creative sensibility and sales skills. They have to be effective at marketing the function of marketing. It’s essential for the marketing leader to be able to explain the function and value of marketing. What are we doing to advance the purpose of the company? They need to connect with individuals in different functions. For example, what does it mean for employees in the call center? What does it mean for engineers building products? This is important because brands are moving from words and pictures to the totality of the experience. Increasingly, it’s people not working in marketing who are disproportionately impacting the customer experience. Therefore, marketing must influence these employees.

Whitler: How can CMOs build this influence?Molloy: At the macro level, marketers can drive alignment around the firm’s purpose. Create a clear picture of the North Star so that every employee knows how to comport themselves. Marketing can create the repertoire by articulating the stories that each employee can share regarding how their company has improved outcomes for customers. If marketing is telling the right stories and the stories are making their way to all employees, then it becomes very tangible for the customer.

We’re early in the days of marketing recognizing that our greatest ability to influence customers is not the ads, it’s about the customer’s experience delivered through our colleagues (chat on website, call center, product development, sales, etc.). It begins with an understanding of what the company’s purpose is and moves to understanding the customer experience.  I’m not convinced that all CMOs in B2B companies know, at a practical level, what the customer journey is (e.g., go to website, use chat, talk to sales, read the contract, negotiate the terms with the lawyers). Marketers need to understand at a visceral level the customer journey – sit in a call center, walk in the customer’s shoes, walk through the process to fully understand the entire experience. It’s a lot of blocking and tackling.

One shift that great B2B CMOs are making is understanding that to be customer focused, we need to first start with transforming our employees’ understanding of the brand.

Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler @MargaretMolloy